Wake County, NC

I'd like to take a minute to get to know the community I have lived in for over 15 years. Though I've spent a lot of time working, learning, and playing here, and being immersed in many aspects of this community, it's hard to see the 'larger picture' working with just this group or that.

Communities In Action, our volunteer program, serves non-profits in Wake County, and connects individuals living in or near Wake County to these causes. So, here are some facts I found about the communities we're working in and for:

Wake County was founded in 1771, includes 64 zip codes, and currently takes up about 857 square miles in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. We are home to the state's capital, Raleigh - where I personally do most of my activities.

The Wake County population as of 2007 was 823,345. Almost half of this population lives in Raleigh. We are growing every day; this year, an estimated 86 newcomers arrive in Wake County daily to start lives here. We have 153 public schools, with 134,002 students enrolled in schools.

The median household income in Wake County was about $60,903 in 2006; not too shabby. However, there are a couple thousand individuals estimated to be wandering our community streets without homes; 1,706 of these individuals were actually visually counted in 2006 by volunteers. These individuals are men, women, kids, victims of domestic violence, mentally ill, or in some cases, full-time employees who simply can't make ends meet. We also have thousands of homeless and stray animals and pets, over 5,000 of whom had to be euthanized in 2007 because there was nowhere for them to go. There is hope, if our community can work together: Raleigh has adopted the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, and we have a functioning SPCA as well as adoption and foster-care pet networks that try to help as many animals as they can.

Our county-wide unemployment rate is about 3.5%, which doesn't sound too bad. However, currently, 9.1% of the Wake County population, or about 69,224 people are living under the poverty line here. In 2006, over 20,000 of these people were under 17 years old (about 11% of the local population of children). I've heard that the cause of homelessness here or in other cities is a lack of affordable housing. Poverty doesn't help the hunger situation. What was really unfortunate was learning that in the year 2000, 115,000 TONS of food were thrown away in Wake County. I was unable to find the statistic for 2007/2008.

We are fortunate as a community to have recycling, following nation-wide trends. In 1989, the city of Raleigh began its recycling program, "Raleigh Recycling", which made curbside recycling available to 101,545 households. We have a database that lists where you can recycle or get rid of pretty much any piece of junk you have in more environmentally friendly ways, from furniture, to food you don't want to eat, to eyeglasses. However, more can be done, as I can attest to personally; only in the past month was I able to convince my Cary-based apartment complex to start a recycling program to serve over 180 households there. It wouldn't surprise me if several other townhomes and apartment complexes did not yet have recycling in place. North Carolina also does not have a "Bottle Bill" yet, or a law that would enable us citizens to collect and drop off our cans and bottles and receive some spare change back. Fortunately, a local group is campaigning to make this happen.

On the environmental note, I was surprised to find that registered vehicles on Wake County roads in 2007 numbered 706,000. And that 85.6% of drivers drive alone to and fro. Only 10.7% of drivers carpool. 1.3% use public transportation, and 1.4% walk. Others worked from home.

My goal is not to paint a bleak picture of my home. I love this place and there are many great aspects to it - like the people. There are currently 4,929 registered non-profit organizations working to make things better in Wake County, and an estimated 175,000+ volunteers. But because I love this place, I know that lot more can be done, and that we're worth it.

In the next few weeks I'm going to start compiling a list of all my "ideas". It will be like a Community Chest of ideas for social action projects. My hope is that I - or one of you! - will be able to tackle each one of these projects at some point. The question I'll be asking myself is: What does an ideal community look like to me? What does it look like to you?